Natl  Film Title                       Weekend Gross
Rank  LDS/Mormon Filmmaker or Actor    Total Gross   Theaters Days
----  ------------------------------   -------        -----   ----
2     Ocean's Eleven                  $14,716,582      3,075    17
      LDS characters: Malloy twins    102,011,604

11    Behind Enemy Lines                3,198,907      1,808    24
      David Veloz (screenwriter)       45,127,954

19    Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure    215,221         19   318
      Scott Swofford (producer)         6,181,995
      Reed Smoot (cinematographer)
      Sam Cardon (composer)
      Stephen L. Johnson (film editor)

24    The Other Side of Heaven             95,000         15    10
      Mitch Davis (screenwriter/director) 191,000
      John G. Groberg (author/character)
      Gerald Molen, John Garbett (producers)
      Steven Ramirez (film editor)

30    Out Cold                             79,966        155    33
      A. J. Cook (female lead)         16,515,735

36    Mulholland Drive                     64,485         60    77
      Joyce Eliason (producer/writer)   5,493,838

43    Life as a House                      43,277         74    59
      Mark Andrus (screenwriter)       15,561,627

53    China: The Panda Adventure           14,067         19   150
      Reed Smoot (cinematographer)      1,680,983

62    Cirque du Soleil: Journey of Man      9,379          7   598
      Reed Smoot (cinematographer)     12,957,907

64    Galapagos                             8,869          8   787
      Reed Smoot (cinematographer)     11,995,552

70    Joy Ride                              5,515         24    80
      Paul Walker (2nd billed star)    21,933,431

73    Island of the Sharks                  4,826          4   969
      Alan Williams (composer)         10,560,709

76    All Access                            4,381          4   232
      Reed Smoot (cinematographer)        992,223

97    Mark Twain's America 3D                 112          1  1270
      Alan Williams (composer)          2,136,630

Six major studio films opened this weekend, so competition was intense: Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" opened in 1st place (of course). Other new films included Russell Crowe in Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind", the CGI-animated "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" and "The Majestic" starring Jim Carrey. "Heaven's" climb to number 26 with only 15 theaters is nothing to scoff at. After two weeks in limited release, "Heaven" has taken in $191,000 at the box office.

Of course, far more moviegoers saw Mormon characters in this week's Number 2 film at the box office. "Ocean's Eleven" brought in another $14.6 million in its third weekend. The Steven Soderbergh crime caper has now grossed over $100 million. This means that "Ocean's Eleven" has surpassed "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" as the top-earning film of all time to feature a Mormon outlaw. Of course, Paul Newman as the charismatic Mormon train robber Butch Cassidy was a far more important character in that 1969 movie. Scott Caan and Casey Affleck as the Mormon Malloy twins are almost buried behind all their co-stars. We can only hope they get their own sequel.

"Oceans's Eleven" has also become the top-grossing film ever to feature a main character explicitly identified as a Mormon. "Rain Man" ($173 million) and "Deep Impact" ($140 million) both earned more than "Ocean's Eleven" has so far. But Dustin Hoffman's title role as the "Rain Man" was only based on an actual Latter-day Saint -- the movie character was changed and was not identified as LDS in the film. The astronaut from Utah in "Deep Impact" is an LDS character, but in the movie his religion is not mentioned by name.

Amidst all the major new releases, Mormon-authored "Behind Enemy Lines" dropped from 5th to 11th place, in its fourth weekend. "Out Cold" starring A.J. Cook finally dropped out of the Top 20 in its fifth week.

The Golden Globes nominations were announced. Among the honored films includes a Best Dramatic Picture nominee, "Mulholland Drive", which was co-written and co-produced by writer/movie producer Joyce Eliason. One of the nominees for Best Comedy or Musical was "Shrek", on which Latter-day Saint filmmaker John Garbett was a producer. Garbett is better known to LDS audiences as the co-producer of "The Other Side of Heaven," but more people nationwide have seen the computer-animated "Shrek", which has grossed over $267 million domestically.

The 2001 Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards were also announced this week. "Mulholland Drive" earned non-LDS filmmaker David Lynch the Best Director Award. "Shrek" won for Best Animation.

Perhaps most significantly among the L.A. Film Critics Awards, the Independent/Experimental Film and Video Award went to "The Beaver Trilogy", directed by non-practicing Mormon filmmaker Trent Harris. "Beaver" refers to the town of Beaver, Utah, the setting for the film's story. It is an unusual self-contained "trilogy" in that the movie actually consists of three shorter films, each re-telling exactly the same story with different casts and different techniques. The film's stars include Crispin Glover and a young Sean Penn.

LDS film fans may be more familiar with Harris' low-budget 1994 film, "Plan 10 from Outer Space", a science fiction comedy about a Utah Mormon who discovers the "Plaque of Kolob", which leads her to uncover an alien plot to use the Church to take over the world.

Finally, the Ring Thing: As mentioned above, the Number One movie this week (the biggest movie of the month, in fact) is "The Lord of the Rings." Now, never mind the fact that director Peter Jackson's first big feature film was "Heavenly Angels," a not-so-accurate re-telling of the Juliet Hulme story, a story that happened years BEFORE Hulme became a Latter-day Saint. No, the "LDS Connection" to "The Lord of the Rings" is simply that this blockbuster film was inspired by the writings of a Latter-day Saint writer.

We don't mean Tolkien, however. J. R. R. Tolkien, of course, deserves 99% of the credit in the Inspiring Writer department. But before Jackson ever read Tolkien's books, he first saw the "Lord of the Rings" movie: the 1978 animated version, which was written by LDS writer Chris Conkling.

In a Barnes and Noble interview ("Explorations", October/November 2001, pg. 13), Jackson was asked if he had seen the animated "Lord of the Rings," which was directed by Ralph Bakshi. Jackson responded: "Yes, I have seen Bakshi's movie--in fact, it inspired me to read the book. I enjoyed it and wanted to know more. In 1978, an animated film was definitely the most sensible way to show the scope of the story. A live-action film back then would have been impossible."

Nobody today will compare the 1978 animated film to the new 2001 live action release. Conkling and Bakshi had only one film, no CGI technology, and limited resources, to tell a large story that Jackson is spreading over three big-budget films. But Conkling's "Lord of the Rings" was nominated for a 1979 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. (The Hugo Awards are like the Academy Awards for science fiction.) Conkling was named as a nominee for the Hugo Award, along with co-writer Peter S. Beagle and original novelist J. R. Tolkien. (Alas, the Hugo that year went to the first "Superman" movie). Interestingly enough, fellow LDS writer Orson Scott Card was nominated for a Hugo that same year, for the novelette "Mikal's Songbird."

Conkling, Beagle and Tolkien were also nominated for a Balrog Fantasy Film Hall of Fame award in 1981. (Although you have probably never heard of the now-defunct Balrog Awards.)

Many Latter-day Saints who haven't seen the 1978 "Lord of the Rings" may be more familar with a 1979 film that Conkling wrote: "The Emmett Smith Story." The 35-minute video tells the story of Emmett Smith, who overcomes a debilitating brain tumor to become a long-distance runner again. This film was produced for the Church at Brigham Young University, can be found in many church libraries, and is available for purchase from BYU Creative Works as part of the BYU Film Classics series.

Chris Conkling has also given presentations at a number of Sunstone Symposium meetings, and written a number of articles for the Ensign, including "The Gentle Power of Jacob" (February 1992) and "The Book that Built a Better World" (January 1998). For all you Ring fanatics: The famous book discussed in that last Ensign article was the Old Testament, NOT Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

So enjoy the new "Lord of the Rings" movie: It is based on a much-loved novel by a famous Catholic writer, filmed by a now-famous New Zealand director, who was inspired by the screenplay of a less-famous LDS writer.

(And did I mention that the late Latter-day Saint actor Billy Barty was the animation model for the 1978 version's Frodo and Bilbo? Jackson's film has an LDS elf -- John Thocolich. But only the animated version has LDS Hobbits.)

On the web: The official "Singles Ward" website is up and running. Steve Young is pictured there.